FPL Best Differentials Tool
Finding the best FPL differentials is an important part of Fantasy Premier League.
On paper, fantasy football is an easy game; pick the players that will get you the most points.
There’s one problem with this, though. Sometimes it’s obvious who the best picks are, and despite their high price, they will be picked by a lot of teams. Generally, these players cannot be ignored.
However, there will be times when you’ll intentionally need to go against the grain and find players to pick that few other teams have. These are known within the FPL community as ‘differentials’ or ‘differential picks’.
Updated
| Team | Pos | Top 10k % | Start % | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tarik Muharemović |  | DEF | £5.0m | 4.3% | 21.9% | +17.6 | 17 | 0.44 | 90% | |
| Kevin Schade |  | MID | £6.2m | 11.5% | 26.1% | +14.6 | 26 | 1.04 | 90% | |
| Thierno Barry |  | FWD | £5.7m | 8.3% | 22.9% | +14.6 | 10 | 1.63 | 90% | |
| Mamadou Sangaré | | MID | £5.6m | 9.9% | 18.4% | +8.5 | 4 | 0.44 | 90% | |
| Bobby Thomas |  | DEF | £4.0m | 8.5% | 16.9% | +8.4 | 13 | 0.75 | 90% | |
| Leif Davis |  | DEF | £4.0m | 6.9% | 13.8% | +6.8 | 17 | 1.38 | 90% | |
| Kristoffer Ajer | | DEF | £4.5m | 3.9% | 10.1% | +6.2 | 10 | 0.07 | 90% | |
| Neco Williams |  | DEF | £5.0m | 8.7% | 14.7% | +6.0 | 11 | 0.73 | 90% | |
| Dan Bentley | | GK | £4.0m | 0.6% | 6.5% | +6.0 | 0 | 0.00 | — | |
| John Egan |  | DEF | £4.1m | 7.0% | 12.2% | +5.2 | 9 | 0.05 | 90% | |
| Dara O'Shea | | DEF | £4.0m | 2.7% | 7.6% | +4.9 | 6 | 0.09 | 90% | |
| Regan Slater | | MID | £4.5m | 5.2% | 9.2% | +4.0 | 7 | 0.35 | 90% | |
| David Button | | GK | £4.0m | 0.6% | 4.2% | +3.5 | 0 | 0.00 | — | |
| Vitalii Mykolenko | | DEF | £4.6m | 4.2% | 7.4% | +3.2 | 17 | 0.14 | 90% | |
| Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall | | MID | £6.6m | 6.0% | 9.2% | +3.2 | 7 | 1.31 | 90% | |
| Luka Vuskovic |  | DEF | £5.0m | 3.7% | 6.5% | +2.8 | 26 | 0.32 | 90% | |
| Harvey Barnes |  | MID | £6.1m | 5.7% | 7.9% | +2.2 | 23 | 0.96 | 90% | |
| Bukayo Saka |  | MID | £9.5m | 13.7% | 15.9% | +2.2 | 12 | 2.81 | 90% | |
| Iliman Ndiaye |  | MID | £5.8m | 6.7% | 8.1% | +1.4 | 9 | 0.31 | 80% | |
| Trai Hume |  | DEF | £4.3m | 2.8% | 4.2% | +1.4 | 2 | 0.11 | 80% | |
| Malick Thiaw | | DEF | £5.0m | 2.2% | 3.6% | +1.4 | 5 | 0.06 | 90% | |
| Daniel Muñoz | | DEF | £5.4m | 5.7% | 7.0% | +1.3 | 5 | 0.57 | 90% | |
| Diego Gomez | | MID | £5.0m | 4.0% | 5.1% | +1.1 | 13 | 0.36 | 90% | |
| Ollie Watkins |  | FWD | £7.8m | 2.5% | 3.6% | +1.1 | 0 | 0.00 | 20% | |
| Carl Rushworth | | GK | £4.5m | 0.8% | 1.9% | +1.1 | 13 | 0.01 | 95% | |
| Liam Delap | | FWD | £5.6m | 2.7% | 3.7% | +1.0 | 8 | 1.17 | 60% | |
| Jean-Philippe Mateta |  | FWD | £6.3m | 1.3% | 2.3% | +1.0 | 0 | 0.00 | 70% | |
| Harry Maguire |  | DEF | £4.8m | 8.6% | 9.6% | +0.9 | 5 | 0.18 | 90% | |
| Kjell Scherpen | | GK | £4.5m | 0.6% | 1.5% | +0.9 | 3 | 0.00 | 95% | |
| Benjamin Lecomte |  | GK | £4.0m | 1.1% | 1.7% | +0.6 | 0 | 0.00 | — | |
| Alex Cairns | | GK | £4.0m | 0.2% | 0.7% | +0.5 | 0 | 0.00 | — | |
| Joe Rodon | | DEF | £4.3m | 0.8% | 1.2% | +0.4 | 0 | 0.00 | 90% | |
| Mats Wieffer | | DEF | £4.9m | 0.2% | 0.6% | +0.4 | 0 | 0.00 | 90% | |
| Daniel Ballard | | DEF | £4.9m | 2.5% | 2.8% | +0.3 | 6 | 0.43 | 90% | |
| William Osula | | FWD | £5.8m | 0.3% | 0.6% | +0.3 | 0 | 0.00 | 10% | |
| Josh King | | MID | £5.5m | 2.6% | 2.8% | +0.2 | 15 | 1.29 | 90% | |
| James Garner | | MID | £6.0m | 0.2% | 0.4% | +0.2 | 9 | 0.34 | 90% | |
| Nick Woltemade | | FWD | £5.9m | 0.5% | 0.7% | +0.2 | 0 | 0.00 | 10% | |
| Cédric Kipré | | DEF | £3.9m | 0.9% | 1.1% | +0.2 | 0 | 0.00 | 10% | |
| Vitezslav Jaros |  | GK | £4.0m | 0.0% | 0.2% | +0.2 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Elite Gap is how much more the top 10,000 managers own a player than the game as a whole. A large positive gap means the best managers have already found him and the crowd hasn’t — which is what separates a differential worth having from one everyone has correctly ignored.
The above table shows the best FPL differential options. There are also filter options for team, position, and pick %.
More importantly, you can break down the table by just how much of a differential you are looking for, using the drop-down above the left-hand side of the table.
As with other live data tables featured on Fantasy Football Pundit, you can also search for a specific player or club. All columns are sortable by clicking the text at the top of each.
Which differentials are actually worth having?
This is the hard part. Most low-owned players are low-owned for a good reason, and a list sorted by points alone tends to surface players who did well earlier in the season and have since been dropped.
The Elite Gap column is the most useful answer we can offer. It compares ownership among the top 10,000 managers with ownership across the whole game. A player owned by 4% overall but 14% of the top 10k has a gap of +10 — the best managers have found him and the crowd hasn’t yet.
That is a very different proposition from a player owned by 4% overall and 3% of the top 10k, who is simply a player nobody rates. Both are differentials by ownership; only one has evidence behind it.
Check the recent form and xGI columns alongside it. A low-owned player the elite are buying, who is getting chances, is about as strong a differential signal as the data offers. For the full breakdown see our top 10k ownership tables.
What Is a Differential in FPL?
Players that are picked by 10% or less of teams are considered a differential. However, there is no official definition. The figure can move anywhere from 5% to 15%.
Basically, a differential player in Fantasy Premier League is one that will allow you to score more points than other teams by virtue of them not having said player.
This also ties to effective ownership whereby the more a player is owned the ranking you gain by that player doing well diminishes.
The table also includes the option to filter by 1% and 2% if you’re desperate to make a big move on other managers. Beware though, there tends to be a reason a player is only picked by 2% or less.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a differential gem with such a small pick percentage.
Template Teams vs Differentials
Template teams are teams that you’ll see throughout the Fantasy Premier League leaderboards. They aren’t always right but generally, these players will keep your score close to average or even above.
If you’re riding high at the top of your mini-league, a template team is the way to go. There’s no need to take any unnecessary risks!
If you find yourself behind or even have aspirations of reaching the upper echelon of the overall ranks, then differential picks are a must.
Differential players are riskier. The greater the risk though, the greater the reward!
To see how your league is set up before deciding, our mini league analyser shows exactly which players your rivals own.